


Five Stages of Grief

by Cheer_The_Underdog_On



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Abuse, Cheating, Drama, F/F, M/M, Parental Death, corporate au!, domestic abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-11-02 00:13:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10932936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheer_The_Underdog_On/pseuds/Cheer_The_Underdog_On
Summary: Link comes home after being gone two years. Everything has changed, but everything is still the same.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MissGillette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissGillette/gifts).



As far as Link can remember, there has always been Ganon. The dark skinned muscular man had towered over him from childhood. Looking up at him with awe, all Link was aware of was that his father’s best friend was bigger than life. The bright naturally red hair only accentuated Ganon’s flair for dramatics that were revealed completely with his deep, rich laugh. The richness extended past just his laugh. He always had the finest suits, the finest women, the finest cars. He took great pride in his appearance. In many ways, in Link's opinion, the man was somewhat like his twin sister Zelda. Although, he doubted the two would concede that they were anything alike. 

Older by twelve minutes, she was everyone's favorite. Rightfully so, Link frowned to himself in his private moment of thought. She’d been the first woman born to their family in a long time; she got to live outside of the mold. Link bore his father’s middle name for a first and the last name as a brand. He was a Heira. If he ever forgot, he was sure within a few minutes of being home he'd be reminded. His father had bore that title as a weapon. Zelda was sometimes similar, “You are Heira, but I am an heiress.” She’d occasionally teased him in late high school, but he never really found the words to tell her how deeply she wounded him with that joke. He'd always struggled to speak up.

Or perhaps, he didn't even lack the will to speak up. He just didn't know how to arrange the words like her to make her desires and whims become reality. She wasn't a bad person, he knew this, some of her frivolity was product of circumstance, as was he. Much like his mother had lived at times in his father’s shadow, so did he. Where Zelda had fought tooth and nail to stand in the sun and prove herself to Rhoam, their father, Link had slipped out the backdoor and out to the creek that rested at the bottom of their valley. He said their valley because half of the vineyards on the west coast of Hyrule belonged to them and fed into their winery. They occupied one of the nicer properties with a castle of a mansion resting on the crown of a hill. Royal Wines and Liqueur had made their family modern in the fifties, before that, they'd made their fortune by selling rivets for clothing, boots, and other upholstery of all things. The alcohol had been his grandfather's attempt to branch out into agriculture, and where he’d lacked in the knowledge, his eventual business partner, the late Vantis Dragmire took over.

Grandfather Daltus, or “Pappy”, had been Link’s saving grace as a child. He'd already been considered an odd duck by his father and son who resented him for straying from the traditional serious Heira ways. His wife had been somewhat of a stern and loving woman supposedly, but had passed on before Link could shamble anything but maybe a humming lullaby together as a memory. This gave the wrinkly older gentleman who always smelled faintly of cigar smoke plenty of time to take Link to the beach, or the mountains, or the lake. Never glamping, but true old fashioned camping, he'd taught him fly fishing, to hunt, to love the outdoors. Looking over at his grandfather who now sat in a wheelchair, he frowned. Alzheimer's had taken everything from the man that Rhoam, Link's father, had not. He didn't blame his dad from pushing grandpa from his seat and taking charge. 

The stress had been slowly killing the man as the disease melted his brain. Link hadn't understood the muddled behavior in middle school, but now at 24, he simply accepted it. The man he saw before him was not the man he’d known as a child, but the shell. He still loved his grandfather even if he was just barely functioning organs bound together by skin and sinew at this point. Placing a caramel hard candy down next to his grandpa’s dinner plate, he looked up to meet a pair of copper brown eyes. He knew the nursing home made Ganon uncomfortable. Hell, it made him uncomfortable and he visited it every week, but that was love. The smell of aging people permeated every surface around them; Death in the most tortuous way eventually seeping in to claim its victims. 

“Ready to go?” The older man asked, keys to his car jingling in his hand. In some ways, it made Link wonder if Ganon thought he was a puppy and this Pavlov’s response would send him running. Standing on tired legs from rock climbing earlier that week, he wondered if his father had begun to suspect anything yet. Ganon after Link had turned nineteen had shown up to fewer and fewer parties with women on his arm. To be fair, Link could never remember their names regardless of how long Ganon had dated them, they all had that same face. Except for Nabooro, an old girlfriend, but ever present in Link’s life at the moment. She’d had a unique nose, but it had brought character to her face. It’d made her stand out amongst a slew of others. 

Nodding, he followed Ganon out to the car. It had recently been washed and the black paint of the mustang glimmered in the sun. He watched as the taller man opened the car door for him. “You’re awfully quiet today even for you.” Ganon frowned, the squeak of leather whimpered out as he sat. A large hand reached over to pat his thigh, “Are you alright?” 

Twirling a piece of long blond hair through his fingers as he looked out the window back at the nursing home, he shook his head for yes. He just wasn’t eager to deal with his sister on the matters she continued to press upon him no matter how clearly he didn’t want to deal with them. Ganon currently held thirty percent of the company as their family held the other forty before the shares went out to the board and common market. Zelda had been slipping in and out of conversation trying to get his half of the forty while their mother had only been lying in the ground cold for about a week. Father had already given her her half so that she could follow in his footsteps and take over as CEO. Link was simply just another hindrance to overcome so that she could lord over Ganon, “Do you want to talk about it? I don’t like to see you this way, Link.” 

Turning to face Ganon as his ex-lover slowed to a stop at a red light, everything he needed to say was in his expression. He couldn’t always be happy. He’d even known that two weeks ago living a province away in one of the major border cities. He hadn’t seen sight nor sound from any of these people in two years except for his grandfather and from his mother who’d called him on his birthday and begged him to come home for last Christmas. He hadn’t even known she was sick. He doubted perhaps anyone had except for his father, who had probably urged her to not show any weakness until the very end, had ever truly known the depths of her pain. An unspecified autoimmune disease had eaten away at her until pneumonia took over and granted her a favor. 

It wasn’t as if any of them could just pick up where they left off with Link. He was a different person now. He’d left almost all of this behind him. As soon as his father had told him that he was going to keep his grandfather on oxygen after the will clearly stated a DNR two years ago, Link abandoned any hope of reconciling with his fragmented family. Now with his mother gone, there truly wasn’t very much of his happier past to cling too. 

Except for Ganon who was in some ways tainted as all the rest. “I’m taking you back to my place, I figure you don’t want to go home right now. Is that okay?”

Link nodded. He could go for some coffee right now, but he didn’t really want to be up all night. He hadn’t been sleeping well since he’d gotten the news. He’d cried substantially for the week privately leading up to the funeral and then hadn’t allowed himself to show any signs of grief at the service. His father had probably been satisfied with his behavior for once. 

“Are you hungry?” The older man asked, “What do you want me to make you for dinner?”

Ah, a lure. Food and an answer that wasn’t yes or no, he’d been played well. Not even death could part him from food. He’d be buried with lasagna and several bags of trail mix. When he took too long to answer as he worked himself up to responding, Ganon grew impatient, “Link, please.” The sharp words made him shrink in his seat as if he was still a child, but he wasn’t a child. Not anymore.

“Don’t yell at me.” The order was definitive and cold. The words carved in stone just like the events that had led up to their last meeting, “You don’t get to yell at me anymore.”

Ganon froze in his anger and seemed to force it to simmer. He attempted to take a deep breath for a few moments before responding calmly, “Alright, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

Link went back to looking out the window until the condominium complex came into view. It was just another painful sight in this city, so he looked at his hands, “Is Riju over?” 

Ganon frowned, “Not right now, but she will be later tonight if you want to meet her.” 

Link smiled for the first time in a week, but he felt the tears clotting up in his eyes, “Nah, I’ll pass.” His voice ever more a whisper.

“She’s a part of my life now, Link. She’s my daughter. I didn’t ever want you to go; we could have all worked something out.” Ganon’s voice spoke of deep remorse for what he’d done. Even his response to Link after the blond had said not to yell at him had been from a place of reform. Probably Nabooro or a therapist or some combination of the both. Maybe having a daughter had softened him. Link didn’t know how much he really cared yet. Everything in this blasted fucking city was excrutiating pain so much that just standing in its borders felt like a migraine. “When do you leave the city?”

“I don’t know yet.” It was the truth. Zelda wanted very few of their mother’s belongings, and his father wasn’t the kind to let things linger. It was up to him to ship out her belongings to extended relatives and decide what he wanted. She’d left him her shares. A provision Pappy had put in place to make sure that even if Rhoam divorced her she wouldn’t be left with nothing.

“I would really like to see you a few times before you go if you’d let me. I haven’t been able to move past you. I haven’t dated since you, Link. I’ve been working seriously on myself. I’ve changed.” The lines were firm and practiced. He wondered how long Ganon had been waiting for this chance. 

“We’ll have to see.” He said purposefully to poke at Ganon’s temper. The man had never been good at not getting what he wanted.

A pause, “Okay. I can accept that.” 

As Ganon parked the car, blue eyes watched the sunset peak in between the rows of cement slabs basking them in a golden red light. He felt sluggish like none of this was real. He checked his phone for the time and then an Uber. 

“Are you coming?” Ganon asked after Link failed to move from where his arms were resting as he leaned against the wall of the carpark looking out across the city.

“Not tonight.” He still didn’t think he was ready to go back to Ganon’s apartment. He didn’t understand why the man had thought he would. Not after everything had happened, “I’m going home.”

Solemnly, he watched as a set of firm muscular shoulders sagged a bit with a sigh. Ganon’s confused, hurt eyes almost look red as the fading sun basks across his face, “I love you, Link.”

Link simply stared at him until he disappeared behind the doors of the elevator. 

Unlike the car ride with Ganon, the Uber takes a surprisingly short amount of time to reach his home. Perhaps it's due to the driver not trying to make conversation with him which for once is a welcome relief. That relief ends when reaches the house and pays the driver before stepping out onto the stained tan cement and walks towards the stuccoed home. The tiles on the roof are dark blue against the reddish brown of the exterior and while the new landscaping in front of the house is of the rock and desert that surround them with tactful cactuses here or there, he can see the vineyards are as lush and green as ever.

They’ve changed the locks since he last lived here, so he is forced to ring the bell. He only finds this out after he tries his key multiple times. He supposes this is a form of punishment again from his father. He is not embarrassed when Zelda opens the door. 

“I was wondering when you’d get back.” She smiles, “Did you have a nice visit with Pappy? I’m sure he’s really grateful that you visit him every week. I don’t know if I’d have the emotional strength to do it once a month.” Link knows she doesn’t have the emotional strength because she doesn’t even visit once a month. Sadly, he has to let the facade stay in tact. 

“I’m surprised Ganon didn’t drop you off. Didn’t he take you since you didn’t want to get a rental?” She already knows the answer, but he at least nods before heading to the kitchen to eat.

He pauses when he opens the fridge because it's almost sterile besides for condiments and a few pre made meals from the chef that comes by once a week. He takes one of them and looks it over. It doesn’t surprise him that no one has been really cooking in his family since his mother died. She was the one that taught him and loved to bake. He had many memories of the kitchen covered with batter and flour in his hair somehow. That was love. That was what love looked like. 

Their parents had picked favorites at the age of six, and it’d ripped this family apart. The house was only standing because it didn't have a heart. “Where is dad?” He only asks because he wants to avoid him. 

“Not here, he’s at a meeting.” Thank god. Well then, he might actually have an hour to set up his room again and get comfortable.

“Thank you.” He means it.

Zelda simply nods back almost mirroring him for once before concern takes over her face, “You don’t look so well.”

“I’ve been told that a lot today.” 

“Are you going to be okay? You’re taking this really hard. I mean, I knew it’d be rough for you, but-” She reaches out and touches his hand, “Link, you can always talk to me. I have never stopped listening. I want to be here for you. I don’t want you to feel like you have to run away from me. I’m not dad. I'm your sister. We've both suffered a lot because of mom and dad, and I’m not-” They were almost getting somewhere when he hears a car in the driveway. That's all the time they had for today.

Pulling his hand away, he takes the cold chicken and mashed potatoes up stairs to eat. 

Link has a lot of problems with food even though he loved to eat and cook. A lot of those problems are around his eating habits. He either went too long without food or ate too much. He sometimes forgot to eat. He had a problem where for a long time he couldn’t tell if he was hungry until he was consistently fainting because he didn’t remember that he needed to eat. Those had all been resolved once he had moved out for the same reason he had to take his food upstairs cold to eat it. He can hear his father’s voice downstairs and then Zelda’s and then he laughs and she does too but maybe it's a bit too forced. Maybe tonight won’t be a bad night. His father had been strategically avoiding him similar to what he’d been doing since he got home, but he wasn’t afraid to fight if he had to. He wasn’t the scared teenage boy who’d run away from home all those years ago. His father couldn't hurt him anymore.

Coming downstairs, his father’s blue-gray eyes meet his own as he enters the kitchen. His bare feet stick to the clean tile making a small sound as he walks across the floor. “Hi.” The word echoes from his mouth in the empty, empty home. The high ceilings feel cavernous at the moment like a mouth about to swallow him up.

“Hey, Link,” His father grabs his shoulder and squeezes a bit. He knows it's supposed to be reassuring, but it’s a dominance move, and one he knew well from all those business classes he’d been forced to take in college. “I brought home some food if you want to eat together with Zelda and I. I know you’re probably really tired from having to sort through your mother’s stuff this morning.” He talks about her like she isn’t his wife, but honestly, he wouldn’t be surprised if they both had been seeing someone on the side. They slept in separate rooms and had since he was fourteen. He simply gives a faltering smile and moves to go sit down at the table. “I’ve heard you’ve been really living it up in Faron. Met any nice girls out there? I’m sure you’ve been working. What are you up to now these days?” This is what snaps him. His father knows well that he is gay. He's known since he'd caught him after coming home early from a business trip. It was probably difficult to forget your son giving head to his track captain. 

 

Similar to parent teacher conferences, he feels like his dad is studying him so he has small talk conversation pieces for the next year and a half until the material gets old, “I’m a survivalist skills instructor. I teach people how to go live off the land and hunt. I’m a hunting guide in the fall. It’s decent money.” Not that money really matters to anyone in this family. “And yeah, I’ve met some nice people there, but nothing to write home about.” Nothing like Ganon when things had been good. He still remembered that night after he’d graduated and- He cuts himself off, “How are you, dad? I’m sure mom being sick was really hard on you. It must have been rough to keep a secret that whole entire time. Did you know, Zelda?”

Zelda purses her lips because she’s not ready for a power play. Not this soon. They normally get more small talk in before somebody goes in for the kill, “I did not, but I could tell she’d been getting sicker.” 

“Huh,” He laughs a bit, “You didn’t bother to ask about it?”

“Lay off of your sister, Link.” Rhoam’s voice grows cold. There it is. There’s the tone he remembered.

“No, I’m honestly asking the two of you. There was nothing to be done and neither of you decided to call me? My mother was literally dying of pneumonia and you couldn’t pull up my contact to send me a text? ‘Hey Link, pop on home. Mom’s about to kick the bucket.’ My number hasn’t changed as far as I’m aware.” He knows he’s yelling. This is the angriest anyone has seen him in this house in years and he stands, chair sliding across the floor, “You are hateful people. I left for a reason, and the one chance that you might have had to redeem any relationship with me is gone. You could have called me. I could have been here and talked to her. There was nothing to be done, but I could have at least had time with her before she left.” He’s spent so much of his life helping these people and putting his life second and the weight of that truth has just crushed him. He can feel hot rage bring salty tears to his eyes. The inside of his mouth tastes like metal.

He’d done what they’d wanted. He’d moved out of the way. Out of sight and out of mind. And he’s paying the price for it. “Link, she called you.” Zelda tries to justify, “We wanted her to tell-”

“Their marriage might as well have had a non disclosure agreement attached to it.” Link spits looking directly at his father, “You just do whatever you want. You rip people up and hurt them and then tell them who to be. I may have been hurt by you, but I’ve never let you tell me who I am. Just try and get anything from mom’s estate, I dare you. She left it all to me for a reason, and the first thing either of you came to me for was, ‘Hey, mom’s dead. Heads up, you've got a crisp couple hundred million. Mind giving it to us?’” He began to move towards the front door to get his shoes and his jacket as the night air has a tendency to be a little chilly. He doesn't even put on his shoes; he just starts walking.

“Link, come on. Don't be foolish. We can talk. Let me apologize! Link! Where are you going?!” His father asks voice growing in fury as they follow him outside to the driveway.

“Ganon’s.” He decides in that split second of rebellion, “Because at least my boyfriend can be truthful.”

Zelda gapes a bit as his father pauses. Link could feel his father’s mind thrashing like a fish in a net at even the idea of his son with his best friend.

Link lets himself have some smug satisfaction even though he knows all of this and his outburst directly after the funeral will come to bite him in the ass. He sighs as he thinks to himself: might as well go down swinging. There weren’t going to be any more Heira family secrets once he was through with all of this .

He feels amazed when Ganon picks him up with Riju in the car seat. It looks out of place in his mustang, but then again, Link probably does too. He doesn’t have that refined beauty like his sister where she’d boiled everything down to a science. He’s just him. Jeans and a green t-shirt and a wind breaker. He looks so nineties that for once in his life he’s actually in style. Opening the door and getting in, Ganon looks at him. Car idling before he’ll drive, “So...You told your dad about us.” His phone had been blowing up with texts for the past thirty minutes he’d been driving. A lot of it was vaguely threatening about involving the law.

“Yup.”

“That’s very unlike you. You tend to play it safe.”

“I guess you’re rubbing off on me.” Link says finally turning to face the man, “Can you just...take me back to your place. I’m really tired.” Ganon simply hums lightly the acceptance of this request as he starts thinking about what all this means. Link feels a bit of shame knowing his put him through the wringer today. Not much, though.

Not much because of the Incident. The Incident with Ganon where once again he has to use all the words he couldn’t say back then. Link actually has something to say, though. He can feel it forcing its way out of his throat like vomit, “You hit me.” It's been ten minutes of silence and the words sound like a gunshot.

Ganon’s eyes stay on the dark headlight lit road in front of them, and Link watches as that strong jaw opens a bit as he takes in a breath. Ganon squares his jaw like he's preparing for battle. Link had seen it again and again in their arguments, “Yeah, I did. I hit you.” 

Link felt like he'd just been punched again from the amount of honesty. “You...really hurt me. On top of…” He looks back at Riju. It was unfair to blame a baby when the source of all this was sitting right here next to him, “On top of cheating on me.” The words catch in his chest. There’s some silence before his voice slips out, “Why?”

“I don’t know. One last conquest?” Ganon doesn’t seem to have a clue himself, “We were getting so serious, and you were so young on top of...on top of me being there your whole life. And after I had accepted that you wanted me and I wasn’t just trying to take advantage of you being young, I just got scared.” He admits. “We were talking marriage, and it’d been three years. You were twenty-two. I’m turning fourty-seven this year, Link. I just figured that if I didn’t you would first. I couldn’t set myself up for that.”

“You didn’t trust me? After all that?” Link can’t seem to find where he might have given reason for Ganon to doubt him, “You were everything. You were my world.”

“And that’s why it wasn’t right. You needed time without me. Without...all of this. How am I supposed to love you as a person when I already knew everything about you and you only know parts about me. You needed privacy, Link. You needed time to grow up and become yourself without a man like me or your father telling you what to do for once in your life.” His knuckles are a yellowish white from how tight he holds the steering wheel, “That doesn’t justify it. I know I handled all of this back then in the most fucked up way imaginable, but I went to anger management. I’m still going. I’m going to be a good father to Riju, and I understand if you don’t want that as your life because you’re young. You don’t deserve the complications of all of this. You need time to heal. I’m old. Nabooro, Riju, and I, we’re not as uncommon of a family now in the modern era, and I’m not going to let myself make the same mistakes that I saw your father make with you and Zelda. That being said, I know you have issues with your father, and I can’t be an outlet for that anymore.”

“You’re not.”

“I am, and you know it.” Ganon’s voice drops, threatening to spill that simmering anger, “And you were getting better, but all of this has opened it up like a fresh wound, and if you don’t work through things with him, or at least accept and recognize some of your behavior, I can’t keep you in my life anymore. Not even as a fantasy.” 

A fantasy. Link blushes at that. Silence rolls over them as he tries to process what has been said, “I still love you.”

“I’m glad.” Ganon admits, still worrying from what he’d seen earlier today and the texts on his phone. “I was hoping you still would.”

“But I’m also still scared of you.” He was being truthful, “I can tell you got help. It’s such a big difference, but...I can’t forget what you did.”

Ganon took another deep breath and was silent, “I don’t want you to forget. I want you to forgive, but I understand if you can’t do that. What I did was horrible to you, and I replay it over and over again when I think about what went wrong.” He parks the car again and they begin to head up towards the apartment after he gets Riju out of her carseat. She barely moves against his chest as she sleeps, “What are you going to do about your sister and father?” Ganon asks softly.

“Nothing.” Link decides, “I can’t control them. I can maybe work out with Zelda what our parents twisted up. I love her. We’re twins; how could I not? But I don’t think I can ever work things out with my dad, and I don’t want to.”

“Okay,” He combs a large hand through his thick red hair, “But can you move on from what he’s done? If I had known about your mother, I wouldn’t have let him take that from you, but the past is the past eventually. Don't bargain with the goddesses about ‘what if’s’.” Ganon frowns as the elevator opens up onto his front door and he unlocks it with a small click letting them in. It was...the same as Link remembered other than Ganon had repainted the wall directly inside of the door and had new drywall probably put in. Brown eyes watch as blue ones study the place before Link begins to remove his boots and jacket. “I’m going to go put Riju in her bed.” The two year old had mostly slept through the car ride and was still sleeping now in Ganon’s arms. 

Looking at her now truly for the first time, she was very cute. Link smiles a bit. Heart feeling warm at the sight of Ganon and his daughter together as they disappeared into the spare bedroom that must be hers now. So many things had changed, but Link realizes how far in the past he’s been stuck by not talking about any of this. He’d just boxed up all of his emotions and packed them away until his mother being gone decided it was spring cleaning. Ganon reappears again from the bedroom, “You’re hungry.” He states looking at Link.

Recognizing it, he nods, “How did you know?”

“You never eat when your father is around. Come here, I have left overs.” He was...unsurprised to see lasagna and a green salad on a plate after a moment. Looking up at Ganon, he saw love in the other’s eyes. 

He wants to eat so he does, and then after that, he showers and cleans himself like he had a million times in that bathroom. Coming out, Ganon is already in bed on his laptop, probably looking over some documents and emails. Link has never really been into all the nuances of what Zelda and Ganon did although he’d seen both of them do it a million times. Climbing into bed after putting on a pair of Ganon’s sweatpants, he curls up against the large man’s side like a cat as he laid his head on that strong broad chest, “Your sister probably hates me more than ever right now, but not because of us.” Ganon frowns as Link simply yawns in exhaustion, “She and I are trying to take the company in two different directions as your father begins to pull back. I think he’s also sick. We’re getting to be that age.”

“You’re not sick?” Link asks anxiously, unbelieving that another person he loved might be gone from him so soon.

Ganon laughs lightly a bit, “No, I’m not.”

“Good,” He rebuffs, petting the hair on Ganon’s chest with calloused fingers. An old fire is stoked inside him and he notes that Ganon no longer has the golden bars through his nipples that Link loved to play with oh so much. “I want to have sex.” He states unabashedly before his brashness slowly grows into a flush that extends to the tip of his ears.

“Oh, I know. I figured with how long you were taking in the shower.” Ganon teases him before placing his laptop on the lush oriental rug on the floor. His canopy bed is just as opulent. “I was just wondering how long until you asked, but you've gotten bossier. I love it. ” He begins to roll on top of Link who moans at the weight immediately garnishing a smirk from the older man. Link loved having Ganon on top of him; that the chestnut skinned man remembers. His hard body presses again as Ganon dips his hips to get the friction from Link he seeks, “You've gotten so much better at asking. Let me hear you ask again.” He tries, seeing if Link will play as he traces his lips up that pale neck. 

“Please,” Link murmurs, “Have your way with me, Oh great Lord Ganondorf.” He uses Ganon’s full name as a privilege knowing that the redhead hates it and as punishment, he gets bitten on the crux of his neck causing his cock to twitch. His face looks as if he's been given something distasteful and bitter, and Link laughs, kissing the expression away. They have sex, and after, they drink a bit of wine. They have sex again, but this time after Ganon speaks.

“I need to get to bed, Link, truly. You can't keep me up all night even if you think I have the stamina for it.” The perks of having a younger lover are not lost on Ganon, and Link looks lovely on his side stretching out and showing off his toned muscles. Those were just from his day job, Ganon notes, he himself was just lucky to have good genetics and a strict workout regimen. 

Sighing lazily, Link looks up at him and then at the clock. It was very late or very very early depending on how one was looking at it, so he concedes. “Wake me before you leave?” 

Ganon simply hums his acceptance of the request once more as he turns off the lamp and they go to sleep.

Link doesn't remember being woken, but he's sure Ganon must have done it because when he wakes up, ass still tender, he and Riju are gone and there is a note on the table telling him to “just stay put for a bit.”

Which is fine because Ganon usually is back by three and it's noon, so Link slips out to get coffee. In the coffee shop, he tries to muddle through all that has happened in the last few days when his sister sends him a text. She wants him to come to the headquarters of Royal Alcohol Products, and Link thinks that that is a “Really Bad Idea.” 

But at this point things can't really get any worse, so he’s in her office about forty five minutes later looking at her expectantly. “So.” She starts breaking the silence, “You and Ganondorf… How long?” He wishes now he'd slapped some cover up on his neck because Ganon is a biter.

“Since I was 19.”

“Who started it? You or him?” Her questions are sharp like a double edged sword and Link can feel himself grow annoyed.

“Me.” He could go in depth and tell her that they'd gotten it on for the first time at a company picnic at their house and her room had been closer, but these details didn't feel necessary. He'd definitely been the first one to come on to the older man. Ganon had even thought he was drunk and stopped him before Link finally convinced him. It helped that Ganon was strongly bi but never had acted on it.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, I like older guys. It's not like my youth was ravished away from me.” He takes a seat on her oh so modern office sofa and she takes a seat as well.

“Huh, older guys...that’s kind of an understatement.”

“Ganon says I have Daddy Issues.” Link laughs, “Which I do and it's terrible, but he at least calls me out on it.”

“We all have Daddy Issues. Dad talks about his father all the time on if ‘He'd just followed the Heira way, Link wouldn't be like this' which is bullshit.” She takes a breath, “So anyways, my girlfriend is 33 and her name is Urbosa and if you want we can go on a double date.” She blushes up to her ears at the admission. 

Of course, he thinks, of course she's also gay. It all kind of made sense now. God, why hadn't he seen that coming? “Does dad know?”

“No, and please don't tell him. I want him to die thinking I'm a nun.” She laughs a bit, but it's sad and she knows it. “I'm done trying to get your shares by the way, but dad’s not and he's going to try to sue the prenup he had with mom.”

“That's fucked up.” He says after a breath.

She shakes her head sadly, “Yeah, Ganon and everyone else moved on into the future and he got left behind. I think he also is starting to show some symptoms of Alzheimer's. It must run in that line.”

Well that blows for him, but life was life. “Ganon isn't actually my boyfriend right now.” He admits, “He cheated on me and we had a fight when a woman showed up at his place claiming to be pregnant, which she was. Afterward I told him it was over and it ended with him beating the shit out of me. I left town two days after that.”

“...Thats really horrible.” Zelda didn't honestly know what to say to that, “Why did you go back with him then? Are you okay?”

He looks at her office as he thinks. Her glass desk is strange, but he knew his sister liked everything regal and sleek. Her office windows look out over the city. She had a dedicated potted plant trying to thrive in the corner off of irregular waterings, “I think I'm going to be okay. It's been awhile since the fight. I don't know if we’ll get back together. Last night could have just been...anything: a mistake, exhaustion, stress, nostalgia.”

“You're so blunt.” Zelda sighs, “And you only let people talk to you if we’re blunt in return.”

“I'm a busy man.” Link admits, “I really need to get away from this city.” His gaze finally breaks from the view out those windows, “Zelda, I'm very lonely.” He says blue eyes looking into hers before he turns away, gazing back out over the city.

“You don't have to be.” She wants to be let in. Let in like so few of the people Link let into his life. She watches him stand and roll his shoulders; His long blond hair tumbles down ending at his shoulder blades. In another lifetime, she remembers combing it and braiding it. “You don't have to be alone. I was there all along Link. I just suffered a different way.”

She thinks she ever so slightly sees Link flinch. Like he’s accidentally letting the wall crumble down just enough to let her inside. Like she's the ocean beating against the rock. 

But she’s wrong.

Link leaves without saying another word.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's still fucked up, kids. Also: rape is in this chapter.

He finishes sorting out scrapbooks, and Zelda is looking through the one labeled with her name in bright gold letters. Her mother had never stopped loving her, she realizes, as she looks at graduation photos carefully laid out in decorated pages. There were so many subtle ways she could tell, but the poem she’d written for her mother circa 9th grade was what cinches it. The tears are slow at first, and Link barely pays them a second glance until Zelda looks up at him, “She loved me so much, and I spent so much time hating her for loving you. I'll never get a second chance with her.” The full weight of the loss truly hits her, and she is drowning in a sob. She supposes, if she had had mom as well then that would have left Link with nothing.

Link is silent as he finishes going through a wedding album when he notices something strange. The bachelor party. There's a man there that Link doesn't recognize, and he looks enough like his father that Link wonders if he's a close cousin. Strange that they would have never met. He pays the passing thought little mind as he keeps going through the album. There's a lot of pictures of Ganon from when he was young in it, and selfishly, Link wants them for himself, but they weren't necessarily his to take. They belonged in the album.

He's so conflicted about Ganon. He has been asked over text almost every night for a week if he was coming over. When silence proved the answer, the texts had stopped coming. Finally he settles on sending Ganon a text to meet him for a casual dinner. The response is swift. Link’s confidence jumps a little as he now feels he hasn't ruined everything. Shaking himself from his dinner plans, he thinks best about how to comfort Zelda, but he settles that like himself, she'll emerge from the tears when she was ready. Eventually she starts through Link's album, but unlike her, his pictures from late high school are missing. She feels like she’s intruded on her mother's love for Link. It went so deep as to purge any reminders of that time. 

With that thought in mind, she hasn't really seen Link eat anything recently. He never finished that microwave dinner. He hasn't eaten with them since. Perhaps at Ganon's, but it's been almost a week or so leaving Zelda wondering if she should talk to her brother about a meal. She struggles to think if he’s had anything besides a latte at the coffee shop. He's always been willowy like her, but just like her mother had purged the photos between the ages of fifteen to eighteen, so had Link purged food from his life during that point.

It was completely by accident. Link never meant to have an eating disorder. He just kind of stumbled into it. At first they all thought it was anorexia, but it wasn't anything to do with appearance or his weight, he just didn't want to eat in the house. If Zelda or his mother took him out, he willingly would scarf a whole buffet down, but he never ate if any semblance of his father was nearby. It was a form of disordered eating from anxiety and depression and whatever the doctors could tac on to make his father satisfied for why his son was wasting away. Link had been wasting away for much longer than what was showing in his medical charts, but no one had bothered to ask questions until he had begun actively passing out at school. 

Zelda saw what she saw. Her father was emotionally abusive towards Link because he wasn't what he'd been expecting. He'd wanted a son. A rowdy boy with the frat football attitude he'd had in college. Link had been born sickly and smaller than Zelda, a common occurrence in twins. Rhoam had rebuked him at the dinner table ruthlessly. In public any nonsense received a smack to the head, while Zelda got the spoils of being the only girl in the family. The situation in its own way had been unfair to her too. When their father had deemed Link unfit to lead the company, Zelda was groomed to be the next Heira. The pressures of that had taken her from coal to a diamond, while Link buckled and grew closer and closer to disappearing into the ground.

But she only saw what she saw and heard what she heard. She had missed the "conversations" where Link as a teen had been stalked down in the house like an animal and cornered. Without Zelda or his mother around for protection, his father had free reign to tell him how selfish he was being. About how if he just realized that Rhoam had sacrificed so much for him, he would be more grateful. Link didn't deserve anything in this house. He was a failure from the womb. “I didn't even have to let you live.” The monster in front of him once said during an exchange that haunted his nightmares, “You were the parasite. We could have gotten rid of you, and maybe your mother wouldn't have been so sick after the birth if there'd only been Zelda.” There were many, many more horrible things that had been said, but Link wouldn't think about them unless forced to. The blond hasn't told anyone but Ganon and a doctor at the eating clinic about all that, and by now, he doesn't know why he would ever bring it up. 

Another text from Ganon pulls his attention to his phone and away from the past; the man wants to know if Link is spending the night. He doesn't know, so he puts that down as his reply. Zelda watches him curiously. Curiosity only growing when she sees Link smile at his phone, “So...what is Ganon like as a lover?” She has only seen him as ruthless as her father, but in a cosmetic sense. It was a groomed facade of powerful businessman. One on one, he had no acrid bite like her father did. Or at least, not that she has seen. She has never gotten to see the injuries Link sustained from that night, but he assures her only once that she truly didn't want to see the pictures.

Link thinks back to when things were good. When he was nineteen and twenty. “He's kind and generous.” He begins, “He's emotionally supportive and very tactile. He's always touching me in some way to let me know he’s there. Patient. He's fucking amazing in bed too, so there's that.” He finishes, shrugging to himself as he throws more personal things of their mother away. Not everything was worth being kept.

“That's good.” It's nice to know something about her future business partner that she hasn’t before. It makes him seem more human. She was still a bit intimidated by Ganon, but that was by the older man's design. Link at some point let Ganon in and in return was let in as well. The realm of someone's private life was eternally different from their work, unless you were, of course, their father.

But at some point it wasn't like that. They grew up on stories of their father and his childhood friend Gustav. He had been someone real like them, like Ganon, but why Rhoam let that trickle away, the twins didn't know. Link's phone again buzzes to alert him that they should take their most recent haul of goods to Goodwill. Their mother had enough shoes and clothes to give every woman in Castle Town an outfit, but fashion had been one of her few life pleasures, they suppose.

As they drive, Zelda continues to pry, “So like, how do you know Ganon is good? Have you been with a lot of guys?” She could list her number of sexual partners on one hand, but she was curious about her brother. He simply shrugs, symbolizing that he has been with enough to know. He might need to borrow someone else's hands though if they were counting.

Link has Zelda drop him off at the restaurant after they're done, and looking around, he feels like Ganon would like this place. The food was good according to Google reviews as well as the interior aesthetically pleasing. Of course, Link is under dressed as usual, but there's nothing to be done about it except to put up his hair in a bun, showing off his hooped earrings, and wait outside since they won't let him in with jeans and a t-shirt. The fountains on the wall outside and the slightly jazzy piano indoors suggest, yeah, Ganon will definitely like this place. Casual dinner didn't mean slumming it when they could live it up. Link did love to eat foreign food dishes. Casual just meant their status wasn't being updated from where it currently was.

He wants to smoke, but his stomach hurts. He doesn't know why. He’s probably hungry. Adding nicotine into that equation wouldn't help, and he hasn't smoked since college. Seeing Ganon’s car, he approaches the other to give him a kiss, but Ganon’s face looks strained. He pauses a few feet away, unsure if he should approach this potentially injured animal. “Your father has hired a private investigator to find out about our relationship.” Ganon’s voice is a rumble in his chest and the words hang in the humidity. Link, if he strains, can still hear the bubbling of the fountains and wishes he could sink into it. He simply nods, acknowledging that he understood. “Link, I could be in big trouble. They'll be looking at the times I visited you in the eating clinic. They'll be looking at your middle school years. If they can find anything from that time, they're going to have my head.”

Link sniffs a bit, looking up at the sky for a moment. Spring always makes him antsy, and he wonders if his horses miss him. That life feels miles away from this one. It is miles away from this one. “There is nothing to find.” Ganon had been nothing but the perfect adult to Link when he needed somebody with as much power and strength as his father to reassure him he was worth being someone. Nothing had ever been romantic. Link hadn't let it be romantic. Not until he turned eighteen, and then the minute he was, he’d pulled all the stops in getting Ganon to notice him only because he knew this day would come.

Redoing his hair, Link looks up at Ganon's face: there is more bad news. “Your father is trying to claim that you can't manage your mother's estate due to your past medical problems as the base of petition to the prenup, but it won't go through in court. I already know this.” Link shrugs as a response. He shuffles closer to Ganon until he has the man’s back against his car. Ganon is so much taller than him, but he still gets the kiss he wants. Soft and sweet for a moment. Then it grows as heated as the air in the parking lot. Link is sweating a bit. They part with a whimper on the blond’s end. “Let’s go inside.” He whispers.

They wouldn't let Link inside dressed as he was, but Ganon’s suit costs as much as two professionally tailored ones put together. How are they supposed to know that Link is an Heira with millions in the bank? He looks like he's just walking home from college. They concede when Link threatens to buy the place if he has to so that he gets in. Ganon laughs because Link is ridiculously serious.

Ganon likes the college look, though. Link doesn't dress feminine or masculine. He just let's his body do the talking. He had wanted earings and he’d gotten them. They accentuate his long neck, pointed ears, and his high cheek bones. Link loves his long blond hair, and Ganon does too. He loves playing, pulling, stroking it. Everything about Link makes Ganon feel younger. He remembers that first time that Link pulled him aside to “show him something” which really was just an aggressively demanding kiss that declared “Well, what are you going to do about it?” He'd been scared. Like he was getting played and that Link was pulling a twisted joke, but then when Ganon didn't react, he could see the rejection in the younger man’s baby blue eyes. And somewhere, he wanted to comfort Link as more than a mentor, more than a friend. 

There wasn't enough love from Ganon or anyone to fix Link, but goddess, had he tried. He was still trying.

Ganon pauses watching Link eat. They both enjoy the outdoors. He'd grown up working in the vineyards out underneath the open sun. He likes fishing and horseback riding. All those things are juxtapose his life now which is phone calls, computers, and the jungle of the city. He talks to Link about how the hunting in Faron is and how maybe he should come and visit with Riju once Link leaves just to get back to nature. He's vulnerable for just a moment, and he watches the blond consider the decision like an asp considers the perfect moment to strike its prey. The ice melts, and he can see the golden glow of Link's heart, “Yeah, I would like that.” A rare true smiles graces a set of pink lips, and Ganon still feels like he has a chance.

The contrast between Link's skin and his is a beautiful one, he thinks. The richest darkest browns of the earth and the whitest peaks of glacier covered mountains are shown on the map of their bodies. When they make love, it's a surrender. Link breaks down every last wall in his fortress of a heart and gives himself to Ganon. Ganon has always been a protector. He wants to protect what he knows is a future. He can see the ivy on their little cottage in the woods. He can see Link asleep in his arms. He can see pancakes on an aging wooden table for Riju as Link complains about being out of strawberry syrup. And he realizes in the only way an epiphany can reveal, that he wants out.

He won't let Link leave him behind this time.

“Hey,” He watches Link sadly as the blond pulls his boots on, “You don't have to go. You could stay with me. I'm sure you're almost through sorting through your mother's stuff.”

He can never read Link. No one can. Link is a marble statue posed tying his shoes to walk out the front door. It’s seven a.m. so maybe they could get coffee together. The younger man gives consideration in his pause as he thinks. No. “I have an errand to run.”

“An errand that would keep you from staying again overnight?” Ganon leans against the wall as Link turns to face him.

“Yes.” He gives Ganon a kiss. See you later. Unspoken, but the redhead knows. It's a little crumb of relief when half of what Link does is a mystery.

Link has to drive to his mother’s sister’s home today. His Aunt’s, he supposes. Although, is she truly an aunt if he's never met her before? I guess there's a difference from being an aunt and an Aunt just like there is a difference from being a father and a Father, he thinks. His mother had called her sister all the time on the phone. Strange she never visited. It's a long drive in an SUV. It feels too big for him, but Zelda liked to be up high. He can't park for shit, though. He listens to folk for most of the way and then static for a few moments before he realizes and turns the radio off. He's a province and a half over in 8 hours. He spends the night in a hotel. He only brought one set of clothes and the bare minimum of toiletries. Tomorrow he goes to see Aunt Midna. Why did rich people give all of their children such unfortunate names? He doesn't think on it too long. He goes to sleep.

The house is a Victorian style farmhouse, but all the lands around are pasture. It’s blue trimmed with white. It looks like the sky. The sky is the only thing out here. There is nothing out here, but the blond can kind of understand why that's nice. The air feels thin. Like he can faze right through it to another realm… Being 35 miles away from the closest town can bring you to places where things aren't all real, he guesses. Link shuffles on the welcome mat as he knocks.

Midna doesn't look very much like his mother, but he didn't look very much like his father. Genetics were weird that way. She has some small dogs and one big one. A German Shepherd mixed with something just a tad meaner. It's a massive dog. It's friendly to him though, so he pets it. Most animals like him and this is confirmed when he gets gentle lick to his hand.

The house smells slightly sweet like baked goods and a little bit like dogs, but mostly familiar. “My mom left you a bunch of photo albums and some of grandma’s jewelry. Zelda doesn't want it.” Midna looks up at him. She’s even shorter than him which is a feat in itself. Link is really short for a man. Being identical-not-identical twins: Zelda was a bit taller than him. 

“You're the one that doesn't talk much. She told me about you.” Midna smiles, “It's okay. I'll do enough talking for the both of us. Do you want tea? Coffee?” Link doesn't answer fast enough, “Tea it is.” She comes back with it iced and syrupy. Link can't drink this. It's like chugging brown sugar. He politely takes a sip before passing one of the boxes of albums over to the little lady. In it is one of the wedding albums, and Midna sighs, “Oh, we were so young then.” She sighs again happily before she looks ready to cry, “A shame about what happened.”

Link looks at her, but doesn't speak. Flipping through it further, she murmurs, “I'm surprised she kept any photos of your father’s brother at all.” Link’s father doesn't have a brother. He only has a sister who was devastated when Pappy gave his other shares to their mom. It'd caused a huge rift in the family, but that wasn't his generation so he didn't ask much about it.

“Why?” He asks finally in a situation where his father won't punish him for snooping, “Why is it so strange? I've never been told about all that.”

Midna purses her lips, and Link sees Zelda, “Doesn't surprise me that no one has told either of you. It was such a tragedy.” She stares off into the distance, “But if your mother didn't tell you, your father certainly won't. I told her to divorce him three years in, but then again, she never listened to me. How much do you know about the wedding?”

“I didn't realize there was anything to know.” Link admits, shifting a bit as the dogs climb onto the couch with him and one tries to settle in his lap. “I didn't know my father had a brother.”

Midna’s eyes grow cold, “Of course,” She huffs, and Link can feel anger roil off of her as he sits eight feet away. The small woman makes a ‘hmph’ before taking, “Where to start…”

Link's parents had both been twenty-five when they'd married. His mother was from a wealthy line from selling land and other business, but not as rich as their father. His father was young. He was a happier man. Ganon would have been twenty-three. Link notes, placing him in the story, because he would have been there. “Your Father’s brother was named Gustav. He was older by about two years, and your father thought he was the sun, the moon, and the stars. Where Rhoam had decided to play it safe and settle down, Gustav was living up that play boy lifestyle. Your parents had been dating for a few years, and as they fell deeper in love, Gustav finally grew jealous of something of your Father's. He'd flirt with your mother way out of line. Say things to her that were horrid in polite company, and she grew fearful of him. He was showing up at her job, at her apartment, stalking her. Your father had to even tell Gustav not to come to the wedding which at this point had to be delayed as your mother was scared. We all thought the problem had been resolved. We had all been prepared for June, but the wedding was delayed to August.” She sighs. 

“And then Gustav raped your mother two weeks before the new wedding date. He ripped up her wedding gown after breaking into her apartment. He hurt her quite badly believing that if she could love Rhoam she could see just how much better he would be for her. He was unstable just like all the men in that family are.” Link shifts a bit, uncomfortable, knowing the statement also extended to him.

“When your mother told me, I was shocked. Rhoam was furious of course. He chased Gustav down on the family property, but by the time he found him, he was already dead. Someone had shot him and left him to rot. I can only assume it was your grandfather. They never found the killer.”

“With all that had happened, we thought they'd delay the wedding again or the wedding would be off, but your grandfather pushed them into it with promises of a prenup for if anything went wrong. He didn’t want your mother to have this story that could ruin the Heiras, and the only way to contain it was to make her one. I begged her not to do it, but...she loved your father. The person your father used to be.”

Link’s stomach clenched up in fear about what he knew he was going to be told, “And then she was pregnant, and us being good little followers of the Goddess of Courage, she decided to keep the baby. The babies. She was damaged down there from whatever Gustav had done, but she saw it as possibly her only chance to have children.”

“Rhoam didn't know how to handle any of this. His bride no longer a virgin, pregnant with his brother's children. His brother a rapist. His father a murderer. Everything that was wrong, he just funneled blindly into hatred. His life had been ruined by Gustav, he said. Of course, he could still have had a happy life, and perhaps he was ready to by the time you two were born.”

She looks sadly at the pictures in her lap, “But you look so much like Gustav, almost identical minus your mother's ears and jaw, and I'm sure your father saw that. You became the Gustav he could hate. A bi product of all the hurt in that family. There was nothing your mother could do to help you. The more she tried to protect you. The more your father saw her and Gustav.” Midna closes the photo album with a defining snap, “Well...that’s enough about that, hmmm? Let's make some lunch.” She hops down from her armchair, “Let me get to know my cute little nephew.” Frozen with all of this new information, he simply did as told. It was hard to talk when swallowing all of that story, but somehow he makes it work until he can excuse himself to go home.

Link has a hard time dealing with things. He has a hard time dealing with what his father has done to him, but at least now he has an explanation, not just blind blame at their grandfather. That reasoning has never lined up for him. He drives straight to Ganon's when he gets back to the city. He even uses his old key to let himself in. He needs to see Ganon. He needs help on what to do with this information. He’s desperate for comfort. He just wants to be held and told it's going to he okay. He needs help trying to decide on whether or not to tell Zelda.

He immediately regrets using his key, but masochism is what draws him in. A set of woman’s underwear is in clear view on the hardwood floor. It's an even day, so Ganon should have Riju who might be sleeping because it's late. He hears laughter from the bedroom and immediately recognizes Nabooro’s voice. Self preservation is what forces him to turn around and head back to the car, closing the door softly behind him.

He cries again. He cries so much that he has to turn on the A.C. or risk suffocating from his grief. Of course. Of course, he was a fucking fool. How could you have a baby with the woman, you’d cheated with and not continue to fuck her? Did she even know Link was here? Maybe he was the person on the side now. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered, and he didn't want to go home, so he was stuck. He was stuck in this city that like quicksand had swallowed him up as well, and now he was in the pit with them all. He can't do this anymore. Any of it. He needs help. He needs someone to intervene, and his mother is no longer here to be his divine savior in these moments.

He does the only reasonable thing a rich crazy person can do when having a breakdown and checks himself into the hospital psych ward. It's a weird sense of relief because he realizes now he hasn't eaten in three days. He'd just been drinking water and coffee, and his stomach hurts badly, gnawing away at him. They take everything off of him, and they tell him to change into the white slip ons and white shirt with grayish elastic pants. They give him a sedative to help him sleep, and he does, for once, just sleep.

He doesn't dream. It's a nice mix up from his recent every night, and he wakes up with his eyes swollen and puffy from crying. The nurse comes in, and with everyone else, he goes to take his meds. He inspects them for a moment. It's his old medication that he hadn't taken for three years, but reluctantly, he takes it with water and swallows. He is the ideal patient outside of not talking in group therapy. Selective mutism, maybe. The doctors say it is, but he doesn't think so. He just needs to figure out a way to work the words over. He needs to massage them into the right order, but he's never satisfied with the script he has in his head, and he doesn't want other strangers to know anything more about him than what he has told them directly.

He's always gotten the most out of one on one therapy. After telling the woman in the chair everything, she talks to him about lack of support, which seems to be his main coping mechanism, is failing him. He might want to try and look into different ones. “Try relaxation or exercise. You always went to the woods as a child, right? If dealing with all of this in the city is so hard, you can make phone calls to these people from your own home. Retreat. You don't have to expose yourself more.”

He's never been very good at phone calls but he understands what she’s saying. After seven days, he’s released, and he looks at the pile up of texts from Zelda, Ganon, and from a few other friends back home who had no clue about all of this or him being an Heira. He thinks about going back to all that, but all these loose threads would continue to pull away at him until he unraveled there as well, so he has to push through. He tells Zelda that he spent a bit of extra time at Aunt Midna’s getting to know her and that she might like her. A white lie, but he can't deal with her worrying right now. To Ganon, he doesn't know what to say. All of the texts are so innocent: asking him where he is, asking him if he's okay, wondering if he was mad at him for something he didn't know about.

Ganon had said that he, Nabooro and Riju weren't that strange of a family anymore. He'd used the word family. Link didn't see where he could fit in in that equation. He wasn't wanted in his own family, so how could he be in theirs? He texts like he speaks. His words are his sword: “Are you still fucking Nabooro? I let myself in on Wednesday. Saw her underwear on the floor. Turned around.”

The dark skinned man sits in the middle of a presentation by Zelda, and it would be rude to answer this, but even she had asked him if he knew where Link was. They were both worried. Waiting until they finished, he opened the text not expecting what he found. “No, Nabooro and I aren't together.” He tries to think about how this could have happened, but then it clicks. “Her washer is broken. She came over to do her and Riju’s clothes.”

Link eats his hamburger on the other side of the city, looking over the text. His rational trusting part says: yes, that's exactly what happened, but his other half says: don't be played for a fool again. “Your sister is worried about you, Link. Where are you?”

“Still in the city.” He pauses to wipe a bit of mayonnaise off of his cell phone screen, “Just checked out of the Hyrule General Psych Ward.” He's got some brand new prescriptions and an old lease on life. 

Ganon’s heart jumps hoping Link hadn't hurt himself. The words on the screen travel fast and the older man bites his nails, a nervous habit he hasn't acted on in years. “Are you okay?”

Link reads the words and sighs as he tucks his knees to his chest in the SUV. He tosses the fast food wrappers to the floor and doesn't know what to say.

He honestly doesn't know if he's ever going to be okay.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the end.

“I'm really worried about him. He's not replying to my texts.” Zelda’s personal meeting with Ganon indeed had ended up being very personal. This wasn't what he was expecting, but he sits and hears her out. To any other observer outside the office, their conversation could have been on anything from marketing to cutting overhead. Ganon’s face has already been emoting too much for their conversation to be about work to a trained eye. They both want to see Link back home safe and sound even if their work lives might clash. “He's been out of the hospital for a week now, and if he's not with you or us, he must be holed up in a hotel somewhere.”

“Does he still have your car?” Ganon asks, “We could report it stolen and have the police track it down for us.”

She shakes her head and looks down at her cherry blossom pink manicured nails, “No, sadly he returned it while I was at work a few days ago.” She rubs her eyes. She’s wary about this life she’s living. It feels like all her personal matters are piling up like books, and she'll never be able to catch up and read them all. She doesn't want to fall behind on her own life story. Not when she's always been the straight A student. “And he won't talk to you at all?” She looks to Ganon.

“Zelda, I don't know what he's told you, but I'm not exactly in a position to demand anything of him. He's an adult. It's best we stop worrying and move on. He's a survivalist in all sense of the word; if he wants to be found, he'll be found.” He reassures her, but he understands. He feels exactly the same way. Every time they feel like they've got a handle on Link, he throws them a curveball. Things with the blond have never been simple, but there were times in the past where that beautiful smile was more regular along with dorky jokes and demands to go out. Ganon wants that to be the everyday for them. He's starting to feel like he's getting closer again to that with Link. Their last few times together have been really good. He seems to believe the truth when Ganon had told him that Nabooro was only over to do chores. It hurt that even with that, Link wouldn't come home. 

But then of course, as he drops his keys into the decorative bowl on the table next to his door, there is Link sleeping on his sofa. He's recently showered, and he looks like an angel. His blond hair drips like spun gold across his shoulders and face. Ganon sits on the coffee table and brushes the locks out of Link's face. The dark circles under Link's eyes concern him, but he looks like he's still eating. “Hey,” He says warmly, rubbing the younger man’s back, “You okay?”

Link is a bit hungover, but he's fine, probably. Looking up blearily, he smiles a bit as he tastes the inside of his dry, sour mouth and desperately decides that he needs to brush his teeth. Ganon can smell the whiff of alcohol off his breath, but the discovery is only cemented once he smells Link clothes after helping the blond to the bathroom. He picks the worn outfit off the floor and throws it in the laundry hamper, “I never took you for much of a day drinker.” His father was alcoholic until the day he died. He hopes Link doesn't find that as his new way of dealing with it all.

“Gustav.” Link says simply before running his toothbrush underneath the water. Ganon feels his stomach go down the drain along with it. 

“Ah,” He looks down at the floor shamefully, “So you know.” That name had been wiped away from every surface of the Heira life. Not a trace remained. He wonders how Link found out about his sperm donor.

Link turns to him and brushes his teeth in silence before eventually moving to spit in the sink. “I guess everything just kind of makes sense now…” His voice is small, and he moves to hold himself. Ganon says nothing unsure on how to comfort him. “Everyone must have known. Everyone must have known I was being abused, and no one helped me get away. They just let me stay in that house to pay for the crimes of a man I never met. Even you knew.”

Ganon bawks a bit at the accusation, “I couldn't do anymore than what I had, Link. We'd begged your mother to leave Rhoam. Almost every family friend had. Your mother just wouldn't leave him.” Ganon reaches out to touch his arms, then his shoulders, then pulls him into a hug. “Not to blame your mother, but your fate was tied up with her.” 

Ganon’s words make him think about what Midna said about Pappy forcing his mother into the marriage. The more he learns about his mother, the deeper the rabbit hole seems to go. He looks up at Ganon, “My aunt told me I look like Gustav.”

“You do.” Ganon whispers into his hair, “But you're nothing like him. Similar to your father, he was a cruel man. I never cared for him. You're so much kinder of a person, I promise you… After the wedding, I watched your father drift further and further away from the brother I had known. Eventually, we were no longer friends. I simply just RSVPed and played along. Many of us never gave up on trying to get your mother out of that marriage, but the older she got, the weaker her will became. I didn't even recognize her by the time she passed away.”

Ganon doesn't even realize Link's crying until the wetness is felt against his chest, “There, there, Love. There's a reason no one told you or your sister about Gustav. No child should have to grow up bearing the weight of an adult like that.”

Link is conflicted on a lot of this, but for once, he can understand why Ganon felt it wasn't his place to say anything. It wasn't his story to tell. 

The rest of the evening is uneventful, and Ganon texts Zelda that Link has found his way home like a stray cat. The redhead wouldn't necessarily even be surprised if it was because he was hungry and likes Ganon's cooking. He's blessed tonight with Link wanting to be happy even with the adversity. Ganob is even able to milk some conversation and laughter out of the blond until there is a knock at the door. Pausing for a moment, Ganon answers and Nabooro’s voice is heard along with Riju fussing. 

Link walks over and Nabooro simply sizes him up before she continues talking to Ganon, “It'll just be for tonight. I'll owe you.” She smiles as the large man calmly takes the toddler and then hands her to Link while he accepts Riju’s bag that got brought between the two homes. 

“Do you know when you’ll be back to pick her up on Friday?” He asks, trying to plan a bit in case he and Link want to do something together.

“Probably around 7 a.m.? I have the day off.” She assures him. 

“Alright, see you then.” Nabooro turns at his farewell to use the elevator and Link tries to calm Riju.

Link likes helping people. He's good with animals. Babies are kind of the same. They sense he has a good heart. In a few moments, Riju is calm and ready to go play in her playpen in the living room. “Sorry about this.” Ganon doesn't like feeling shame about his daughter interrupting things. There's nothing to be ashamed of other than the action in which she was created. Link knows what Ganon is feeling and just shakes his head no. It's okay. He sits down next to Riju and offers her some wooden train tracks. Ganon follows behind mesmerized.

“Link.” He begs for the blond’s attention, “I love you. I miss you. Please come back. I’d do anything for you. You're the light of my life. Your laughter is what I want to listen to for the rest of my life. I know our past and your past is complicated, but I don't want to see you weather that storm with anyone else. I want to be that man at your side.”

Link looks at him a bit bemused, “A speech isn't necessary, Ganon. A simple ‘Can we go steady?’ will do.”

“You know good and well I'm not that old.” He laughs, moving to kiss the man. He tilts Link’s chin up and plunders his mouth. The spoils of his conquest are well worth it. Link freezes for a split second before allowing himself to relax into the kiss. In that moment, maybe they are the family Ganon always said they could be. They were unconventional by every mean but maybe that wasn't so bad. 

Riju has successfully managed to stack her blocks into the order ‘CAB’ and that's what Link uses to catch a ride home. Zelda first feels relief, then anger, then concern, “Dad’s not here. He's on a business trip.” She ends with having given him her lecture.

“Oh goody, time to invite Ganon over and get it on in the hot tub.” 

Zelda mulls on that until she’s laughing at the deadpan humor, “I mean Urbosa is here, so if you want to have a foursome-”

“Oh Goddess, Zelda!” He laughs, “Goddess ew! No!”

“I'm down.” Urbosa grins turning the corner, “Link's boyfriend is a Daddy from the pictures I've seen.” She moves to wrap her arms around Zelda from behind and sets her chin on Zelda’s head.

“In all senses of the word, yes, but I will pass on finding out my sister has a bigger dick than me.” He snorts, “Anyways, even if he has enough dick for all of us, Riju is over tonight, so I'm not going to ask him to bring the baby over here.”

“That's fair.” Urbosa nods, “See, I told you even if he was serious he must have a sense of humor. The moody ones always do.”  
“It's just more fucked up, and I'm actually already in a good mood. Ganon and I are back together.” He announces proudly, scanning their faces for some sort of reaction.

“That's great, Link! I thought you guys had been dating for a while since you got back.” Zelda admitted, “So you worked everything out about the cheating and him...hitting you.”

“Yeah.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow up.” Urbosa put out her hands to stop them, “He hit You? I don't care what he said in apology, leave him.”

“It was two years ago, and he has been going to anger management.” Link justified, “And honestly, I don't know if I actually care all that much if he hits me again.”

“Link!” Zelda cries, “That's horrible!”

“It's the horrible truth, but it's my decision.” He remains steady as the two storm around him until they thunder themselves out about the subject.

It's not like they don't have a point. He has nightmares all the time about that night. He can remember every detail in hyperrealism. Nabooro had shown up while they were cooking dinner. They’d been finishing off a bottle of shitty wine. It’d been from their company too, which Link laughed at. He can smell the food starting to burn as she talks to them at the front door. Ganon was in shock obviously before he mustered an, “Okay, you have my number. I'll be in touch.” The door closes softly in front of them.

He looks to Link like he's supposed to just be accepting of all this dirty laundry coming to light. He feels like he’s just been handed something much too large and doesn't know what to do with it. Ganon hadn't even tried to refute Nabooro, so the possibility must be there. He doesn't know what to say, so he just blurts, “You couldn't bother to wear a condom?” And now he's thinking about STDs and HIV and everything else that's just making him feel used and dirty.

“Link-” Ganon's voice starts to raise, “We can work this out now. Just be reasonable!”

“Reasonable?” He laughs incredulously, “You've got a kid coming, Ganon.” The smoke is starting to haze up the room and he goes to turn off the stove before the smoke alarm can go off.

“You don't know. She might abort it.” He growls, knowing that Nabooro wasn't going to pick that option. Ganon certainly wasn't. He wants the baby.

“You don't come to the man's house and tell him and the partner that he’s cheating on that you're pregnant unless you're having the baby.” Link hisses moving back towards the table and to the front door to start gathering his things. He needs to get out of here. Goddess, he couldn't believe this!

“So what, you're just going to give up and let everything be over?” Ganon’s yelling, and Link out of habit starts to flatten himself up against a wall, freezing up in what he’s doing, “I've given you everything! I've been there for you so many times with your whiny teenage needs, and when life gets complicated on my end, you decide to bail!? It was a mistake, Link! One night! And you can't find it in your heart to just hear me out!? Your thinking is always so black and white; right and wrong! Life is gray, Link!” He’s up in Link's face, just like his dad would get, and he's scared. Ganon knows he’s scared and laughs cruelly for just a split second.

The redhead has made so many promises to him. Not to mock him. Not to wield his past against him, Link is in a fit of angry tears, “You're pathetic!” He shouts back, “There's a reason you've been alone this long and it's because you won't let anybody love you! Well, I loved you! And then you had to go and throw all of that away for what? My Hylian ass wasn’t tight enough for you? You needed to go back to your people for a little pussy?” It was a low blow. The race card was wrong, and he knew it, but he was going to get back at Ganon any way he could.

“Link-” Ganon looks shocked and enraged at the same time, “Would you just shut up for once and calm down? The one time I actually need you to be quiet and all you do is run your mouth!” His fists have clenched up, but Link isn't looking at that. He's looking at Ganon’s face. He wants to see him feel as broken as Link feels from the cheating.

“I hope she aborts it.” His voice is caustic, melting through any of Ganon’s resolve and reason, “You don't deserve to have a child.”

He hits Link once in the stomach and then twice in the face.Ganon doesn't know when a plate from the table somehow made it into his hands, but it had. It breaks against Link’s brow bone and cheek. That blow is what sends him to the floor. He doesn't move for a moment, and neither does Ganon. All of his anger dissipates in a second, and he swears he’s killed the blond. Fear floods him. When he kneels, Link’s eyes are just fluttering back open and he's bleeding from his lip down his chin. Bruising is already patterning up the side of his face, and Link doesn't seem to know what's happened until it clicks. Neither of them say anything as Ganon lets him leave. When the door shuts, all he can do is look up at the ceiling and cry.

But that argument wasn't normal. They’d had a few others were Ganon had broken a glass by throwing it to the floor or punched a hole in the drywall, but Link had been with him three years with some intense arguments and never been hit. But he forgot himself like Icarus and had flown too close to the sun.

Honestly, part of the reason he wasn't as mad as he could be was because he deserved it. He may not have thrown a physical blow, but telling Ganon, who had openly wanted a child for most of his life, that the baby should be aborted was a verbal suplex there was no coming back from. He had been younger and more foolish then. He loves Ganon and to decide it over when they both needed each other was wrong of him, and he’d taken two years away from it all to see that.

They spend the rest of the night talking once they move past the subject, and Link likes Urbosa quite a bit. She is a talented woman who is an electrical engineer. Link marvels at the idea of ever being that smart. He hadn't ever been very talented scholastically. At least he has his good looks; he is completely fine being a trophy wife. The bruises on his hips remind him of that. 

Things are almost normal. For two months, he grocery shops and takes care of Riju while Ganon is at work. He even shows up when he needs to for board decisions at work. Ganon wants the company to start moving towards a more elegant higher end marketing strategy since they've been pumping out mediocre mid price for a while and sales are staggering a bit. Zelda wants to go after women, but women already drink wine. Link finds the middle ground: a line of ‘select’ alcohols with Ganon’s marketing teams with a few certain hard liquors targeted at women. They compromise on these quarterly sales ideas, and Link earns his continued twenty percent keep.

He’s almost ready to tell Ganon that he needs to go back to his ranch when the nursing home calls to tell him that the old man has passed in his sleep. Funeral arrangements have been made in the past and they're moving forward and they need a date picked.

Unlike his mother's funeral, everyone who shows doesn't grieve. The man had been gone long before his body had descended into it's casket. Link simply feels like he shouldn't have stopped his weekly visits, but he too like everyone else here had forgotten the old man. His grandfather's will provides him with even more money and a few old family trinkets. He doesn't really want them, but his aunt on his father’s side steps forward to ask for them at the wake. After he agrees to give them to her, she frowns, “You just look so much like your father.”

“I know. I've been told that before.” Never about Rhoam, but now that Gustav’s tale was coming to light again two decades later, he’d been hearing it more and more.

His father and Ganon are talking across the room, and for once Link looks at his father and sees something he hadn't expected. The man is tired. He looks...fragile. Link approaches him, and for once it doesn't seem like the lion has any energy to swat him down, “Hey, Dad.” His voice is stronger than expected, deeper too, “I know you were really close to your father when you were younger. I'm sure this must be hard on you.” 

Blue-gray eyes try to decode the words, but there's no hidden meaning. Link is trying to heal and move on, and all Ganon can see is olive branches. “Ganon told me that...you know about Gustav.”

“That seems like a hard secret to hide for such a long time, and I'm sorry that all of that happened to you.” Link remains steadfast as Ganon places a hand on his lower back. Rhoam looks at it and sighs. And then the sigh starts to turn into a sob. Everything he’d been wallowing in for twenty years is pouring out his eyes. Link’s aunt comes over again. 

When it was said that Zelda was the only female born in the Heira line for a long time, those words were true. Aunt Navi was the product of an affair on his grandmother’s part, but his grandfather had let her join the family. It makes Link think of Riju who was being babysitted today by Nabooro. “Link, can I talk to you for a moment?” Aunt Navi had always seemed sweet on him, but according to Ganon, she'd been very sweet on Gustav growing up. She was spoiled by him as the baby sister. There was more to imply there than Ganon was letting on, but Link wasn't quite sure how much more he wanted to know. “I wanted to give you this.” She passes him a sealed letter. “Because I don't know how much you know, and you and your sister deserve the full story. So does Rhoam.”

He waits until he gets home. The envelope is thick. There are numerous pages in there front to back. Some ripped out of journals. A few crime scene photos. Until he reads something Navi had written, it all seems stuff he had already known, “Mother was so disgusted with him when she heard of what had happened, she chased down Gustav to his childhood hiding place on the farm. This has been a long time coming. He deserves this for everything he’s done.” The page is dated for the day after the man was murdered, implying that perhaps it hadn't been his grandfather after all. Not implying. Stating. Grandmother Heira had gunned her son down on the accounts of incest and rape. She had been the judge, jury, and executioner. Grandmother Heira wasn't going to let him hurt anyone else.

It explained his grandfather’s alibi well. That'd been the only thing that had saved him, Link thought bitterly.

“Enough of that,” Ganon smooths his hands down Link’s back to his ass, “Come to bed after washing your hands.” He doesn't know who or what has touched those letters, and the idea of those germs being anywhere near his bed makes him shudder. 

“My family is really fucked up.” Link murmurs looking up at Ganon.

“I am aware. As was my family if one day you would like to hear about it, but for now…” His voice purrs, beckoning Link with velvety promises, “Come to bed.”

“I will.” He assures, looking up at his lover with a smile. “Let me just put all of this away.” Folding it up, he washes his hands and checks his phone for the time. There is a text from Zelda. He ignores it for now. He’ll take care of it in the morning. He turns off his phone for a bit to relax. 

He brings everything over to Zelda at the house the next day and explains the horrible story he has uncovered. He tells her more about the abuse. He tells her about Midna and Navi, and he passes the envelope to her. Zelda is thrown into ice cold water. Once she’s broken through it all, she bites her lip. “Wait here, Link-” She heads upstairs. “I thought this had been a joke, but after mom’s wake, this arrived in the mail.”

In plain typed letters on a single folded sheet of white paper, he reads something that makes his breathing stop.

“No. No, this couldn't be true. This can't be true!” He turns to her. His face pales. There was no way what was on this paper was real. There couldn’t be more to this story. Zelda simply covers her mouth, nodding. She understands the shock. The words were horrible, but even she couldn't deny the possibility. After all, she had set their mother’s death up for a long time. She watches Link reread her most carefully selected words and sees as his brain whirls away starting to make all the connections she’d been laying out since the beginning. After all, who would suspect her when the motive was all there. It all made sense.

Ganon had poisoned their mother.


End file.
